The clarification was made yesterday (Apr 8) after critics cast doubts over the number of daily new cases which have remained low for two days, though the number increased to 111 yesterday due to a group of Thai-Muslim pilgrims returning from Indonesia in which 42 people were infected.
New cases dropped from over 100 to 51 on Monday and 38 on Tuesday. The test rate in Thailand currently stands at 1,079 cases per one million population while the infection rate is at 2.8% of people tested.
The rate of infection discovery is not different from South Korea despite the fact South Korea conducted many more tests, as high as 9,099 cases per one million population while its infection rate stood at 2.19%, said Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman of the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
“The point is we’ve conducted selective screening, not sampling in order to conduct as many tests as we can,” Dr Taweesin said.
At present, the country is capable of testing up to 20,000 patients a day, he added. “Some people questioned whether we hide the number of infections. That is impossible. All activities are closely monitored by people on social media,” he noted.
Still, Thiravat Hemachudha, head of the Health Science Centre of Emerging Diseases at Chulalongkorn Hospital, urged the government to aim for widespread screening. The number of tests should be increased to match South Korea’s, Dr Thiravat said, citing a report from China that says 30% of people catching the virus do not show symptoms.
Dr Taweesin said the government is aware of all concerns and has already begun active case-finding in Phuket in order to find more patients. Officials selected Bang Lan and Krathu areas on the island and tested more than 2,000 people a day. A result is they found 12 additional patients, Dr Taweesin said. The method will be applied in targeted areas in Bangkok to better search for new infections after the number of patients in the capital showed a decreasing tread, according to the Disease Control Department.
Department chief Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai said Bangkok has a decreasing number of infections, but further aggressive action is needed to find new infections. “What we are going to do is the same as we have done in Phuket. We will highlight the targeted areas that have a high number of infections, backed up by a surveillance system in which all people under the surveillance system whether they are healthy or sick must be tested for the deadly virus,” he said, adding in Phuket over 1,500 people are under surveillance.
In the past three days, the number of new cases in Bangkok has decreased from 27 cases on Monday to 23 cases yesterday. There are 1,099 accumulated patients in the capital; however, its ratio of infections is second to Phuket province with 21.6 patients per 100,000 population. Phuket has 33.9 per 100,000.